Lucy DENYER

Three years ago I joined the Conservative Party in order to vote for Theresa May in the forthcoming leadership election. It was, in the end, a pointless measure, as Mrs May was crowned leader before a vote even went to the membership.

With hindsight, I’m rather glad I didn’t tick the box in her favour, given the abysmal mess she’s made of Brexit over the past three years.

I’m thinking of reviving my direct debit, however – on the basis that another leadership election might be on the cards very soon. And if Rightleaning voters have any sense, they will do the same.

Many lifelong party members are outraged with Theresa May for climbing into bed with Jeremy Corbyn, and are now threatening to leave the party.

Some grassroots Tories have even gone on Twitter to post pictures of their membership cards cut in half,

next to dramatic statements slamming May’s approach. How many have actually made instructions to their bank remains to be seen.

And while I feel their pain, it might be more expedient to close the craft drawer.

Given that party membership stands at something between just 100,000 and 124,000 (in comparison to Labour’s more than 560,000), the Tories need all the support they can get right now, particularly if they’re to find a way out of their current predicament.

Annoyed that the Tories have bungled Brexit? Want to see a proper Leaver at the helm?

Hand over your £25 today, because time is running out – you have to have been a party member for at least three months in order to vote for the next leader, and we may not even have that long.

Because surely that’s the only answer. Sorry, but Ukip under Gerard Batten couldn’t organise a bun fight in a bakery; besides, they’ve become such a grotesque parody of themselves it would be irresponsible to put them anywhere near Downing Street. Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party might sound as if it would do the job, but given that he is famously a man who “works bloody hard until about 1pm”, he might not be quite organised in time for the next election.

Tempting as it is to stride away and watch the Tories crumble, doing so is unlikely to be the answer to our Brexit woes.

Now, perhaps, is the time to atone for that time back in 2015 when Right-wingers across the country, in a move that backfired spectacularly, joined Labour to vote for Jeremy Corbyn, in the belief that it would sabotage the Opposition’s hopes of ever returning to power. What is to stop metropolitan liberals who want to take the Tories over from the Brexiteers from organising their own form of entryism?

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if you’re a Remain-voting Right-winger who shudders at the thought of Jeremy Corbyn in No10 and would like to see Amber Rudd as the next Prime Minister, probably the best thing you could do right now is to join the Conservative Party. Brexiteers, you have been warned.